


The Case Of The Consenting Couple

by musicin68



Category: Perry Mason (TV), Perry Mason - All Media Types
Genre: Consent, Established Relationship, F/M, Legal Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 21:03:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17711546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicin68/pseuds/musicin68
Summary: Yes or no, the only way to be sure is to ask.Perry and Della are working late in a nebulous 1950s Los Angeles.





	The Case Of The Consenting Couple

“Any further contact with my client will be considered actionable harassment under California statute three-six subsection one-five...” Perry Mason trailed off, and his pacing ceased as his eyes came to rest on the bent form of his confidential secretary. Brunette curls shone as she raised her head. If the line of her neck gracefully bent over her work had been distracting, the sight of her wide, questioning eyes completely derailed his train of thought. “Where was I?”

Della Street dropped her eyes once again to her notes, her rich tones echoing the attorney’s words. “Considered actionable harassment under California statute three-six—”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.” He resumed his pacing. “Statute three-six sub one-five, for which we will seek redress to the full extent of the law.” Perry turned back towards her and stopped again. “I would very much like to kiss you. May I?”

Della looked up from her steno pad, surprise and suspicion warring on her features. “Really?” Her delivery was dry. “Mr. Mason, do I seem like that kind of girl to you?”

He smiled disarmingly. “A girl that I would like to kiss if she is agreeable to it? Yes, yes you do, Ms. Street.”

She bit the inside of her lip to stifle her own smile. “I should rephrase that, Counselor. Have I given you any sort of indication at this time that such conduct from you would be welcome?”

He perched on the far corner of his desk and clasped his hands in his lap as he considered. “No, not at this time. However, as the only appropriate avenue for discovery in cases such as these is direct examination I felt the only recourse—”

“Was to ask,” she finished.

“Yes. May I kiss you?”

She set her pencil down and regarded him as sternly as she could. “No.”

“Mmm, I see.” His expression became serious as he considered the carpet intently.

“Where was I, again?”

“Propositioning me in the workplace,” she said dryly.

“Ha ha.”

Della retrieved her pencil and read back his last line.

Perry rubbed his chin absently. “Alright, end it there with the usual, please and thank you, Della. Do you have anything else you need to finish tonight?”

She nodded and pushed her chair back to rise. “Just a few pages of typing. I can be finished with everything and have this ready for your final approval in about ten minutes.”

He grinned at her. “And there’s no chance I can convince you to knock off now? I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to buy you dinner.”

She paused in the doorway. “You can’t wait ten minutes?”

“I can wait ten minutes, I would just prefer not to.”

She narrowed her eyes, “No, you can’t convince me to knock off. This needs to to go out by courier first thing in the morning.”

“Slave driver,” he grumbled.

“Besides, if it’s my company you’re after, you had better keep in mind that the more time I have to spend fending off wandering hands, the longer it’s going to take me to finish.”

He granted her the point with a grunt and a nod. She closed the door behind her, and he returned to his chair. Flipping a book open at random, he tried to focus on something other than the woman in the outer office.

Perry managed to keep himself occupied for eight of the ten minutes Della had said she needed, but he was certain he couldn’t have recalled a single word of what he had read. He slammed the book shut, retrieved his hat and coat, and strode out into her office.

Della pulled a page off the typewriter as he came barreling through the door. Spinning the letter on the desk so that it faced him, she proffered a pen. “You are a towering example of self-restraint.”

Refusing to rise to her bait he looked over the document quickly and with a flourish added his John Hancock. Straightening he asked, “Is there any more work that absolutely must be done this evening?”

Della shook her head as she slid the letter into the waiting envelope.

His smile returned. “Then we can close up shop now?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She nodded and began gathering her own things. He fished out his keys and then stood holding her coat expectantly. Della pushed her chair in and stopped, her face pensive.

“Something the matter?”

She tilted her furrowed brow in his direction without letting go of the chair. “Do you think we could be any different, Chief?”

“Different how?”

Her eyes slid back to the outgoing mail, and Perry’s heart clenched uncomfortably. Dinner, dancing, soft kisses, her body next to his. Hadn’t there always been a yes? Had he missed a no? Was their latest client’s harassment complaint a wake up call to the fact that whatever his intentions, they couldn’t escape the fact that he was just another man in a position of power over a pretty woman?

“You do realize you keep putting me in impossible situations, don’t you?”

“Della, I—” His hands fell, and her coat brushed the floor. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, that’s a first,” she huffed.

“I’m sorry. Please believe me, you can always say no.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Of course I can say no! If you recall, I said it fifteen minutes ago.” She crossed her arms. “Perry, I’m tired of being the bad guy.”

“The what?”

“The bad guy! The slave driver! I’m not entirely sure you understand which one of us is the employer and which one the employee.” Della’s hands went to her hips. “For heaven’s sake Perry, when you’re bored I have to work twice as hard. I’m tired of always having to tell you no when all I want to do is say yes!”

He blinked. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

The smile crept back onto his face.

“Don’t look so smug.”

“You want to say yes,” he said, eyes alight.

“Of course I do, Perry.” She closed the space between them and ran her hands down his lapels. “There was work to be done; it doesn’t mean I’m dead inside.”

“And now that the work is done?” Her perfume filled his senses as he inhaled.

Della’s mouth turned up mischeviously as she focused her attention on his tie. “I would very much like to kiss you, Mr. Mason. May I?”

He bit down on his lip. She looked up at him sharply when another beat passed without a verbal response, and he blew out a breath. “I see what you mean about it being hard work.” Hazel eyes rolled at his teasing. “Yes please, Miss Street.”

Her lips met his softly as she tilted her head upwards in his embrace. Della sighed happily against him. “May I kiss you again?”

“I will swear an affidavit for a standing ‘yes’ to that question.”

“I’m not sure that would hold up in court, Counselor. You always have the right to change your mind.”

“Revokable, then. Does that satisfy your legal concerns?”

She nodded and kissed him again, longer and more deeply. When they finally broke apart he shook out her rumpled coat. “I still owe you an apology for my behavior during working hours,” he said seriously.

“I will accept your plea, provided restitution includes dinner.” Della shrugged into the waiting garment.

“Naturally.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You know, for a long time now, I haven’t thought of you as my secretary.”

She shook her head with a laugh. “When we’re working, that’s what I have to be, Perry. When we’re not...” She trailed off and let her hand do the same along his arm.

“My name may be on the door,” he said, opening it. “But I wouldn’t be half as successful at what I do without you.”

“Am I getting a raise?” She asked slyly.

“I think that much is obvious,” he admitted, his eyes traveling over her hungrily. He paused again. “We could be different, Della. We could be partners...”

“Perry,” she began warningly.

“If you wanted to say yes, we could make it legal tonight.”

Her lips pursed in a frown. “That answer is still no.”

He sighed theatrically. “Mason and Street, it has a nice ring to it...”

She hit the light-switch, plunging the room into darkness as she moved past him. “Maybe you should consider Street and Mason.”

He grinned again and pulled the door shut behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> In the novels, Perry asks Della to marry him more than once, but for reasons not covered here she always turns him down.
> 
> This is my first foray into this fandom. I have read a couple of novels and seen a few early seasons of the television show with Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale. My characterizations in this probably lean more towards the tv incarnations.
> 
> To my knowledge there is no such thing as California Statute 36.15. Researching 1950s law on sexual harassment was not something I actually wanted to delve deeply into for this piece.


End file.
